The First Whisper of Love

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A young Roman man whispers into the ear of a young woman and clasps her hand. He sits on the edge of an elaborately carved table on which rests a flowering plant. Behind the couple is a cushioned bench and decorative inlaid panel. Based on an oil painting dated September 29, 1870 that the artist began in Brussels and completed after he settled in England (Opus LXXXII), commissioned by Ernest Gambart and first exhibited at the International Exhibition, London in 1872 (no.486).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art